Lots of reasons to love this great photo! First…nice roosterfish just off the beach! Second…Claire Swift’s big smile on her first roosterfish that she REALLY came down to catch! Third…in 20 years of working for us, Captain Arcangel rarely smiles for the camera although he’s a fun guy! He’s got it going on here in this photo! They had 3 other fish that got away also! This beauty was released as well! Claire is from Dana Point CA.
Great start of the week of fishing for our great Washington friends, Grant and Carol Darby with Captain Gerardo and a nice box of dorado!
Every year, Diego Jimenez from Loveland, Colorado comes to visit us and does well. Check out the big roosterfish with Captain Pancho. The fish was released.
We call him the “Mayor.” Butch Tropez from Los Angeles brought the family to see us this year and usually makes at least one or two trips a year to come fish. He got into the dorado right off the Punta Perrico rocks just outside of Muertos Bay. Don’t have to go far for these fish!
Grant Darby from Washington has fished with us a zillion years, but got into three sizeable roosters with Captain Gerardo and said, “No mas!” These fish are a handful. All released. Grant had fun on the light tackle.
This lady can fish! Verda Boyd visits us every year and our amiga loves to fish…so much so that she left husband Tim back in the San Francisco area and came alone! He wishes he had come now after she had a full 3 days of pretty good fishing with Captain Victor!
From Colorado, Craig Weitzer was fishing with Captain Armando when he got two huge roosters . The largest got released but this one was not able to be let go, but the meat was donated. His first two roosters were beasty-fish!
Another of our regular great amigos who visits us sometimes twice a year and loves fishing with Captain Jorge, John McVey got into this week’s dorado bite.
This lady always gets her fish! Big roosterfish for Kelly Jimenez (Happy Anniversary, amiga!) with Captain Pancho. The fish was released .
Limits for our friend and first time, visitor Jeff Swift from Dana Point, who got a limit of dorado fishing with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet. (Those wily pargo and cabrilla are waiting for your next trip, Jeff!)
Carol Darby had quite a week with the dorado and also this roosterfish that’s almost as big as she is and a smiling big Captain Gerardo! They caught the fish not far off the Arenas lighthouse on light tackle. They also released the fish.
Verda Boyd has a nice variety of fish for the day with Captain Victor and Carlos including dorado, a big pompano, triggerfish, a barred pargo and a palometa! All great eating!
Captain Jorge and Diego Jimenez started his week off with some pretty dorado to fill the ice chest.
Wow! We’ve had some big needlefish this season but this one is prehistoric! Captain Rogelio helps Carol Darby (longer than she is tall!) pose with this creature!
DORADO SEASON OFFICIALLY ON…FOR AT LEAST THIS WEEK!
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report for Week of June 17-25, 2017
It’s been a long time…several seasons actually…since I’ve been able to blow the “dorado trumpet!” After about 2 1/2 seasons where el Nino conditions kept the dorado eenie-meenie small or almost non-existent, it’s nice to have the mahi-mahi back in our waters and, while not beasts, they’re nice good-sized fun fish that kept rods bent and folks (especially first-timers) happy. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to say these two words…”DORADO LIMITS!”
While there’s still a bit of chill and wind in the mornings, it’s warm and sunny during the day and some of the best conditions we’ve seen in awhile. I’m sure that has had a lot to do with the improved fishing. Still some bump out there, but surely better than it has been and, although I hear there’s been a crazy heat wave in much of the lower U.S. and Pacific States, it’s been a balmy 95 here most of the week.
TAILHUNTER LAS ARENAS FLEET
There’s still some big rooster fish around. There’s still wahoo around. But, our counts surely didn’t show it this week although we did get a few of each. For once, there was something else to chase and for alot of folks, the opted for fun and action chasing the dorado schools that moved in rather than spend long hours chasing the bigger home run fish like the roosters and wahoo.
The roosters we did get were in the 25-60 pound class. The wahoo…well…we lost most of them but were about 30 pounders.
The excitement focused on some of the best dorado fishing we’ve seen in ages. Not huge fish, but good respectable 8-20 pounders and we were getting limits or near limits on some days with fish being released, especially smaller or female fish! There were also some larger bulls in the 25-30 pound class as well.
Another good sign is that these dorado will wake up the billfish and sure enough there was a huge black marlin and a blue marlin hooked as well!
Still some white bonito, pompano, huge jack crevalle and pargo mixed in as well.
TAILHUNTER LA PAZ FLEET
Another nice mix of fish with dorado leading the way. Again, it’s been awhile since dorado have been center-stage and even a longer time since I’ve been able to say that both our La Paz and our Las Arenas fleets are into the fish!
Like Las Arenas, the dorado have been that nice-grade medium-sized with occasionally larger bulls and not unusual to get early limits. The issue, mostly is finding the fish. There’s still some thick cold green water muddling around the island so the idea is to find the warmer water and blue currents. It’s so markedly different you can stand in the panga and see the two waters next to each other like night-and-day.
In the inshore waters, you can have fun all day if you’re tired of chasing dorado. In the rocks we had some great…but frustrating acition…on tough pargo, cabrilla and amberjack that rocked alot our efforts!
That’s our story!
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor
TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR Top 5 – Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor
Wind – 6 (Still pesky but better than before. Messes up the fishing water)
Fishing – 5 (Decent, not great. Should be way way better for this time of year. Changes daily.)
Catching – 4 (Still losing alot of bigger fish that would change alot of things)
Bait – 4 (At best. Better in La Paz than Las Arenas)
THE BIG PICTURE!
Laura Weinholtz from Denver, Colorado was with Captain Pancho of the Tailhunter Fleet near La Paz when she hooked this huge bull dorado not far from Bahia de los Muertos on a live bait. It’s the largest dorado so far of the season. She had a pretty good trip! She also got a wahoo. See photos below!
Damon Chin from Massachusetts was on his first fishing trip to La Paz and fishing with Tailhunter Sportfishing and got a wahoo pretty much bigger than him on his first at-bat! He needed a hand from his buddy, Tim Mistler and Captain Gerardo who is about 6’5” tall. Fish is estimated at about 65 pounds.
Good start for the Pacific NW! Captain Arcangel with Kelly Steck from Washinton and dad, Ed, from Oregon and a nice pair of dorado to start the week!
Megan Garrison tied into this beautiful wahoo just outside of Bahia de los Muertos and got it to the panga to pose. Megan is from San Diego. Thanks to Gary Wagner for the photo. Megan was staying at his place a Rancho Costa.
Doctors in the house! Jim Good and his son, Marshall Bell, are both heart doctors from Colorado. They got a nice little adrenaline buzz off these two dorado south of Bahia de los Muertos.
What a week for Arizona cattleman, Rick Skaaler, and Captain Gerardo with another big fish. This time, a hefty roosterfish. Released.
From Park City, Utah, it was great to finally get Jim Pankow down to visit us. He scored one of the larger dorado with our La Paz fleet so far this season fishing with Captain Boli.
Captain Armando shares a smile and photo with our Denver amigos, Diane and GaryKaiser and their dorado.
Big smiles from Dr. Marshall Bell and his dad, Dr. Jim Good, who baited our first striped marlin of the season then had himself quite a stand-up battle just off the east side of Espirto Santo Island. The fish could not be released. Father and son are from Colorado.
Hard to have more fun than Katie Skaaler from Arizona who got her first wahoo with us and Captain Gerardo!
From San Diego, Karl Ferreira, only had one day to fish with us and did himself well with several dorado in the box and brought to dinner at our Tailhunter Restaurant for dinner!
For someone who hasn’t done alot of fishing, Laura Weinholtz had herself a dandy week of fishing including this nice wahoo with Captain Pancho.
Funny pose with Captain Jorge and amigo, Craig Weitzel, from Denver and a couple of schoolie dorado.
Good bonito action for both our fleets with several species of bonito. Anyone who doubts the feistyness of these members of the tuna family has never had one on a hook! They pull perhaps harder pound-for-pound than anything in the water. If they were only 50 pounds larger ,they’d probably yank fishermen right into the water. Captain Pancho and John Ehlers, our amigo from Colorado, with a big fat bonito!
DORADO FINALLY JOIN THE ACTION
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report for Week of June 11-17, 2017
Not a terribly bad week. Even with the big moon!
Good sunny weather and diminishing winds helped conditions improve although there are still some big patches of cold green water and erratic fishing patterns as the season still tries to get in gear. Some high spots. Some low spots. Every day seemed different. Hot fishing spots changed daily. Bait availability changed daily. What we caught changed daily.
It’s just traces of winter still lingering as we’re about 5-8 degrees cooler than normal as are the waters. Even my scuba divers are telling me that there’s warm “green water” up on top but then 30’ below the surface the water is clear, but icy cold! Usually, it’s just the reverse. Warmer waters are clear and colder waters are greener. There are also current lines where one side of the current is green and the other side is clear.
Apparently, fishing is erratic all over as we’re getting calls from other locations and folks staying in other areas asking how our fishing is doing!
However, overall, the best thing about the week is that the dorado look like they’re finally joining the show about 1-2 months late! The conditions we’re seeing right now are basically what we should have seen at the end of April or through May, not mid-June.
TAILHUNTER LAS ARENAS/ BAHIA de LOS MUERTOS FLEET
We saw more and bigger dorado than we’ve seen in a long time. Not a lot of mahi-mahi, but anything is an improvement over what we’ve had, especially over the last two years when fish averaged about 12” long! The dorado we saw this week were nicer 8-20 pounders with a few in the 25-35 pound range and it was great to see some actual schools of dorado instead of one or two free-swimmers!
Wahoo are also still around with us getting some fish in the 20-30 pound class, but also one estimated over 60 pounds. Not sure how much longer they will be around as the waters get warmer which is bringing some of the billfish into the waters as we’re seeing more sails, striped and blue marlin hanging out the the surface just waiting for the waters to kick it up a notch or two in temperature and they’ll start biting.
Not much in the way of rooster fish this week but that’s also a function of the fact that folks weren’t really chasing the in-edible rooster fish although they are a spectacular fish to catch and a real trophy. They’re not good eating so most of our clients were out chasing dorado and wahoo. But the fish we did catch were all chunky 30 pound class fish or larger.
Live bait is still an issue. Flyfishers are pretty much giving up although two of our flyfishers did see some action on sabalo and dorado. The flyfishers down here have all pretty much been fishing conventionally if they want to catch fish.
TAILHUNTER LA PAZ FLEET
Very very encouraging to see more dorado finally with 10-20 pound fish in the mix. Better than it has been in a long time. But, a lot of the fish are just not quite ready to go yet.
My captains are telling me the area is set to blow up. Waters are getting bluer away from the islands (still green) and there are dorado everywhere, just not yet feeding on much or not willing to take a bait or lure. But, it’s bubbling and promising to hear that there’s dorado activity that could go off soon!
Same for billfish. More and more billfish showing up and look like they could go on the chew if waters warm and clear up just a tad more .
Inshore, there’s still amberjack, pargo, snapper and cabrilla as well as triggerfish biting nicely.
PACK FOR A PURPOSE
Thanks to our folks who brought us donations this week for our on-going community out-reach programs. So many great things. We just sent several hundred pounds to one of the outlying La Paz communities where they have no water or electricity. This batch might be headed to the women’s shelter. But big gracias to Grant and Carol Darby, John Ehlers and his family with Laura Weinholtz his daughter; Jim and Jeff Pankow from Utah and more Colorado amigos, Diego and Kelly Jimenez plus the Ferreira Family from San Diego.
From Washington, Carol and Grant Darby with toothbrushes, toothpaste, school supplies and toys!
John Ehlers and his daughter Laura Weinholtz with school items, hygiene things and more.
Every year, they bring the big hearts. Diego and Kelly Jimenez from Colorado!
HAPPY FATHER’s DAY!
My dad is giggling as I shave him. Happy Father’s Day, Dad. I miss you!
That’s our story!
Jonathan Roldan’s Tailhunter International
TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor
TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR Top 5 – Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor
Weather– 7 (still some wind, but not as bad as before)
Heat – 9 (cooler than normal . Sunny and near perfect beach weather)
Fishing – 6 (lots to be caught)
Catching – 3 (losing alot of fish)
Fish Quality – 6 (some big fish around but losing too many)
Outlook for the coming Week – 7 (conditions improving)
Live bait – 3 (at best)
That’s a beast of a wahoo for good amigo, Doug Oclassen, fishing with Captain Jorge. Doug got two in a row. Photo further down.
I love this photo of Katie Skaarer and Captain Gerardo and one of the largest roosters of the season! She’s a bit tired, but what a gamer! Check out how close they are to Punta Perrico. Katie is from Arizona.
First timer to visit us, Kurt Gallow from Washington and Captain Armando pulled out this big-time dog-tooth snapper.
Big smiles for Mark Jacklin and Dana Wolff from Grants Pass, Oregon who spent the week with us and got a variety of fish including Mark’s first wahoo.
The whole week, I don’t think Brad Cooper from Arizona ever stopped smiling. It was great! Just like when he caught his first roosterfish. The big fish was released.
Another big wahoo for Captain Gerardo and Rick Skaarer, who runs a cattle business in Arizona and got some nice fish this week. It was his first time visiting us at Tailhunter.
Another of our good Arizona amigos, Mike Guest, has a habit of putting wahoo into the boat and he didn’t miss on this one either!
With his first rooster, Shawn Westberg from Copperopolis, California, makes the report in this nice photo!
Captain Armando rocked it again with Bruce Eads and his first roosterfish. It’s a nice one!
Talk about a variety of great eating fish, John Shields has about a half-dozen different types of fish after a great day of action including snapper, dorado, triggerfish, cabrilla and white bonito.
One of the nicer bull dorado of the week get to pose with Charlie Rodriguez who gets an assist from Brad Cooper.
It’s Captain Armando again who got Kurt Gallow a fat wahoo on Kurt’s last day fishing with us.
The 2nd of two wahoo in a row for Doug Oclassen in this great photo! Spectacular shot!
Charlie Rodriguez and Brad Cooper had a good trip fishing together shown here with the first wahoo of their trip!
First day of fishing for Kurt and Brenda Gallow with Captain Armando produced a couple of nice dorado and a hard-charging Jack Crevalle.
Somewhere behind that dorsal fin is Mark Jacklin with his 2nd rooster of the trip. The fish was released.
FULL MOON ROOSTERS AND WAHOO LEAD OFF!
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report for Week of June 4-11, 2017
The full moon week still had more breeze than we would like, but overall pretty fishable weather and water with a good variety of fish. We’re still a little cooler than normal and seemingly still in that “transition” phase between the cooler waters of spring and the warmer conditions of summer. The fishing reflects that with both cooler and warmer water species hitting you just never know what’s going to be biting. Live bait continues to be an issue. There’s no small sardines per se, but we’ve had big sardines, caballitos and mackerel. Still losing more fish than we’re catching which is just part of the sport! Big fish are big fish for a reason and we’re still losing fish to the rocks, teeth, inexperience or just bad luck. But, if you look at the photos there’s some awfully big fish being caught as well!
TAILHUNTER LA PAZ FLEET
This is where most of the wind was all week which had our pangas mostly fishing on the lee side of Espirito Santo Island to get away from the winds. But that was fine because inshore and up tight against the rocks, we got a great variety from dorado to amberjack and pargo to big triggerfish.
Some of the cabrilla and pargo were especially nice grade horses that the anglers were able to get out’ve the rocks, but so many others were simply unstoppable. If the winds would just give us a break, water conditions are really looking better and better and sargasso weeds are building up which should be a good sign for better dorado fishing. Also, we’ve got some nice live bait every day.
TAILHUNTER LAS ARENAS FLEET
This is where our big boy fishing has been. There’s no small fish for our anglers that fished with our Las Arenas Fleet. Just like the last several weeks, it’s big or go home. Hit a home run or strike out. There’s no small toy fish.
You get one or two shots at bigger fish and that’s pretty much it, but if you do get to hang one, it’s a good fish. Larger 20-35 pound dorado; rooster fish running 20-80 pounds and wahoo in the 20-50 pound class are what we were seeing this week with a smattering of jack crevalle, bonito, some big pargo, smaller cabrilla and snapper. But those were just filler. The bigger “cooler filler” fish were the norm. Good to see better dorado too!
That’s our story!
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor
TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR Top 5 – Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor
Weather – 7 (Mid to high 80’s and sunny but can be very gusty)
Fishing– 6 (Some BIG fish out there!)
Catching – 4 (There’s some BIG fish out there…and we’re losing them!)
Bait– 4 (Work to get mackeral at Las Arenas / Better for La Paz)
Flyfishing Condition – 2 (winds + no bait to chum)
My Optimism – 6 (Getting better as these winds diminish)
THE BIG PICTURE FISHING REPORT
What a great shot! John Frederick just had a nice rooster on the flyrod, but hooked this one on bait and posed it for a great photo! Poster quality shot! John’s first time with us! John released the fish.
Triple shot of wahoo with Captain Victor with Mike and Chris Wilbur from Kansas. WOW!
Happy guy, Taylor Westberg’s first rooster is a slug! Right off the lighthouse at Las Arenas! Taylor is from Copperopolis CA and visted us for the first time. Taylor released the fish.
Her first dorado! San Diego in the house with Toni Hayden. She said it was “delicious!” Caught north of La Paz by the island!
Finally checked off his bucket list, Mark Jacklin hefts up a nice roosterfish and a big smile. Mark came to visit us from Oregon. Mark released the fish to fight another day.
Taylor Westberg helps grandpa Rick with his biggest dorado. It’a a nice bull from the Las Cruces area.
Bob Lederer, from Massachusetts, has been fishing with us over 10 years and loves fishing with Captain Jorge who helped him hold up another big roosterfish. The guys let the fish go. Bravo!
Stacy Florence from Kansas with the right kind! Good wahoo for our amigo on the beach at Bahia de los Muertos.
Captain Gerardo helps out our best amigo Glen Oclassen who has been fishing this area for decades and put the bend on another nice roosterfish! They released the fish.
Colton Atkinson had himself a memorable week visiting us for the first time including this colorful dorado!
One of the best eating fish around is the pompano and Robbie Shields got a couple of these big jacks!
Our San Diego amigos, John Stone and Jeff Correria with a pair of bulls with our Tailhunter La Paz fleet.
Robbie Shields and Captain Gerardo hoist a thick heavy roosterfish. The rooster was released.
Colton Aktinson with his first roosterfish. Punta Perrico in the background. He released the fish.
Captain Adolfo with a fresh wahoo taken by Chris Jolly from Kansas on his first trip with us.
Some huge jack crevalle this week! Jeff Correria has a fat one. Tough fighters!
New Jersey, Matt Lederer, has a pretty rooster. Cerralvo Island in the background. Fish was released.
Happy Birthday, Riley Florence with his dad, Adam and Captain Pancho finally got a wahoo after 4 days on his last day!
Carson and Colton Atkinson with some fine eating dorado and triggerfish. They also released a roosterfish as well.
Dave Sundgren tries to hold up his big rooster for a proper photos so he can release it! These fish are HEAVY! Especially after you’ve been battling them!
On a roll! Captain Gerardo and Darrell Blasi with Darrell’s roosterfish just prior to releasing it! Notice how close the beach is!
That’s alot of meat! Chris Jolly and Dave Sundgren with a mess of triggerfish and a wahoo for the frosting!
Captain Gerardo was on fire this week! Two more wahoo!
Carson Atkinson with dad, Dave, and two doubles of dorado!
I just had to post this! Rick Westberg and Captain Pancho with a beast of a needlefish!
FISHING SO-SO BUT GREAT FOR WAHOO and BIG ROOSTERFISH
La Paz – Las Arenas/ Muertos Bay Fishing Report for Week of May 28-June, 4, 2017
Well, those winds came back on us again this week and didn’t help things. Fishing wasn’t great, but it was surely GOOD for some fish! Notably, two exotic trophy fish really lit it up for us, namely big rooster fish again and wahoo saved our week with some hefty fish; big battles; lost fish and some great excitement. The thing with this kind of fishing is that, it’s home run fishing. You get a big fish and you get one or two if you’re lucky but if you miss your fish or it’s just not your day, then there’s not much else. Big or go home. Trophys or trash. Late in the week, dorado showed up for our La Paz Fleet and that helped out a lot!
TAILHUNTER LAS ARENAS FLEET
As mentioned, above some of the pesky winds came back on us again. Still fishable mostly, but winds hampered the ability to get bait. Just the way it is. The fishing counts directly reflected that.
Early in the week, the wahoo were hitting. These were nice 20-50 pound speedsters. Some days almost every one of our pangas had a shot and there were some really big fish too that were regretfully lost. Often, to no fault of the angler. These are just big powerful fish with sharp teeth and it’s heartbreaking to lose a big fish but that’s part of the sport and especially with these prized wahoo. I think we probably lost 60% of all the hookups and like I wrote earlier, that might be your only shot of the day. There wasn’t much else. However, the fish we did get were beauties.
Later in the week the wahoo bite tapered. The captains told me there were a lot of spear fishermen on the wahoo spots and that pretty much killed the bite.
Fortunately, the big roosters came back and we had a nice great of 25-60 pound fish. I think one day we had 9 big roosters boated among our Tailhunter Fleet. For lots of the anglers, it was their first rooster or biggest personal best fish so a good thrill.
Not much else except some bonito, cabrilla, a few pompano and snapper. Big fish or nothing. Still no sardines for small baits. Still not very good for fly fishing.
TAILHUNTER LA PAZ FLEET
It was erratic. When fishing was good for our Las Arenas fleet, it was slacking for our La Paz fleet and vice versa. And it all had to do with the winds. If the winds were blowing, it made it tough. Winter continues to linger!
Inshore, it was lots of big triggerfish and a number of bigger cargo and cabrilla lost in the rocks.
However later in the week, we had some decent numbers of 10-25 pound dorado come around. Some larger fish lost, but it was nice to see better numbers and a better grade of mahi-mahi finally appear.
PACK FOR A PURPOSE SHOUT OUT
This is Shawn Westberg’s gang of merry men making faces at the camera with Jill after bringing about 6 ice chests full of school supplies, sporting goods, clothes, hygiene items and more for our “Pack for a Purpose” program.
Mike Kelly and Barry Wood have been our friends for years. They also brought down a bunch of stuff for the kids…but I accidentally deleted the photo!!! Thanks guys! You’re the best!
Quick shout out to our amigos who brought stuff for our charities! The items this week went to the Women’s Shelter, the orphanage in Los Planes and will also go to some of the outlying neighborhoods of La Paz. Thanks for the big hearts, everyone!
That’s our story!
Jonathan and Jilly
Jonathan Roldan’s
Tailhunter International
TAILHUNTER FISHING FLEET #1 Rated on Trip Advisor
TAILHUNTER RESTAURANT BAR Top 5 – Rated in La Paz on Trip Advisor
Tailhunter Fish Report 